Quincy runner Pat Foley, 31, is returning to run the Boston Marathon this spring after being stopped near the end of the 26.2-mile course last year. Foley, who has run the marathon every year since 2006, was turning right off Commonwealth Avenue onto Hereford Street when police stopped runners after the two bombs went off less than a mile away at the finish line.

Patrick Ronan The Patriot Ledger @pronan_Ledger

QUINCY – Pat Foley of Quincy expects to hear the word “comeback” tossed around quite a bit today when Boston hosts its first marathon since last year’s bombings. But Foley, 31, who was less than a mile from the finish line last year when a pair of bombs killed three people, injured hundreds more and abruptly ended the race for him and thousands of other runners, said the city’s comeback started long before the 2014 Boston Marathon.“I think the comeback of Boston started at 2:49 p.m. that day when the first bomb went off,” Foley said. “You had all the police running down Boylston Street, you had all the EMTs stepping up, helping out all the injured victims, not even thinking about if other bombs would go off. It was ‘what can we do to help right now?’ ”

Foley is returning to run the Boston Marathon after being stopped near the end of the 26.2-mile course last year. Foley, who has run the marathon every year since 2006, was turning right off Commonwealth Avenue onto Hereford Street when police stopped runners.

“They’re like ‘everybody hold on. There was a just a manhole explosion up at the finish line. Wait here a couple minutes. We’re going to sort it out and let you guys finish,’ ” he said. “And then the other (bomb) went off, and more police came down and said ‘you guys are done today. You guys are all finished. This wasn’t a manhole explosion.’ ”

Foley said panic swept over him because his family was waiting for him at the finish line. In the suspense-filled moments that followed, Foley said he saw countless gestures of compassion from strangers; runners helped fellow runners who had collapsed from exhaustion, and neighbors opened their homes to runners so they could contact their loved ones.

Foley eventually reached his family and found out they were unharmed.

Foley decided that day that he would return to run in the 2014 Boston Marathon. As of late March, he had already raised about $17,000 for the Fisher House in Boston, a program that supports military families. Between 2009 and 2013, Foley, whose brother served two tours in Afghanistan, raised about $130,000 for CarePacks of Weymouth, which sends packages to U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Foley – whose goal is to finish the race in under 4 hours – said training for the race this year has been much different.

“I don’t think you can get out of your head what happened last April 15 every time you go out there and prepare for this,” he said.

Foley said he’ll feel a wide range of emotions today when he makes that left turn off Hereford Street onto Bolyston Street. He expects memories from the past year to rush through his head as he sprints to the finish line.

“You can’t experience something like that last year and not change as a person,” he said.

Although Foley asserts that Boston’s comeback started last April 15, he says this year’s race will send the strongest message to terrorists who think attacks like last year’s bombings will create a culture of fear.

“You have record numbers of people coming out to watch the race. I think that’s the biggest punch in the face to the terrorists,” he said. “The city, and all these people, are answering the bell. They’re showing up.